Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-12-24
MEXICAN HOME LIFE.
How the Women in the Sister Republic
Live and Work.

An intimate acquaintance of many years
with Mexican people-both in California
and Mexico-gives me the right to speak Of
their home life as one worthy of imitation
in many essential respects. Though the
house may be but adobe, with the ground
for the floor, it is always home III the best
sense of the word, for it is the abode of peace
and harmony, of generous hospitality and
simple, sweet affection that pervades every
thing like magic charm.
The Mexican women know little and care
less about the burning questions which agitate
our women until their restlessness reacts
upon home life and destroys its even calm
and union of interests. They read seldom
and hear next to nothing about things be-
yond their own narrow existence, and as
consequence their whole hearts are given to
home and family. They look up to their
husband as the recognized head of the house,
and acknowledge his authority on all vital
questions, but all things pertaining to the
management of the household or the rearing
OF the children are given completely into the
hands of the women, and the keynote of
their nature is love, full, complete and
Astounding toward their husbands and chill
where so much love is, happy homes
must be.
Mexican home life and customs change
little with the succeeding years. and proba-
bly, the Mexicans are the most conservative
and stubborn people in existence as to adopt
ing reforms or innovations, and so to-day
the same simple domestic implements are
used even by those well able to afford our
labor-saving inventions, and those who
build houses preserve as far as is possible the
ancient type of dwelling that suited their
forefathers; and they are as chary about
American furniture as about their architec-
ture.
Even in California the haciendas, ranches
and country buildings erected by the Next
can families are of adobe or sun-dried brick,
with the same small windows and thick
walls. They are one-story structures, built
around hollow square making sort of
courtyard, and nothing could convince them
that they were not more desirable residences
than our flimsy three and four-story dwell
ings.
The type of Mexican homes in all parts Of
Mexico and California is the same, though,
OF course, there are different degrees from
the low hut of the poorest to the enormous
palace-like structures in the largest cities.
The same general character is noticed all the
way through-the same low-ceilinged
rooms, and thick, solid walls, fiat or slanting
roofs and small windows. The houses may
contain from two to fifty rooms from ten feet
square to fifty long by thirty wide, but
though some walls may be handsomely fres-
coed, and others merely whitewashed, the
type never changes.
Some houses in Acapulco and Mazatlan
are quite spacious and many Mexican homes
in California have as many as thirty rooms,
but those in Pueblo and the City of Mexico
are larger than any others and more preten-
tious in every way; indeed, some of them
are almost palaces, with adornments and
decorations of great beauty; but as it is
more with the home-life wish to speak, I
shall not go into details of description.
In all houses the bedrooms are furnished
with more luxury than any other. The
bedsteads in the better-class houses are of
brass, and with curtains of chintz or lace.
The very poor have rude bedsteads made of
wooden frames, covered with strips of raw
hide interlaced, over which wool mattress
or sometimes one of corn husks is laid. All
the pillows are covered with pink, red, blue
or yellow satin or calico, and over these are
laid the lace-work covers. The pillows are
small and hard, but the bedding is always
clean.
On the floor before the bed is placed rug
of some description, varying with the means
of the family. The beds are usually for one
person only, which requires many. On
some of the beds in even quite poor families
will be seen a counterpart in that beautiful
drawn-lnen lace work which the Mexican
women are so adept in making. The pat
terms are skillfully worked out, often elabo-
rate floral devices, but sometimes patriotic or
devotional subjects. Where the patterns
come from or whether the women invent
them is mystery. Counterpart of this
description takes more than an ordinary
lifetime to do. First the worker takes up
with a needle thread in warp or wool and
draws that entire thread out of the fabric;
then others and others across and length
wise, until not over half, perhaps not so
many, are left. Then with needle and
thread the patient worker takes up
stitches here and there and tolls I'M
til the pattern is worked out, and the
durable that it will last for generations.
Every undergarment worn by Mexican
wonderland many of the mems shirts as
welfare adorned with bands of this en-
broidery. The variety and exquisite beauty of
workmanship are wonderful: Little girls are
taught to sew as soon as they can hold a
needle and children of six years can take
stitches and sew in manner to put many a.
grown woman of other nations to blush.
Mexican women do an enormous amount
of fine sewing, all of it by hand. Their
household luxury consists in having num-
bers of large brass-studded camphor-wood
trunks full of beautifully wrought under
linen, sheets, pillow-covers and counterpanes,
all in this exquisite work. And it is real
linen, too, none but the very poorest using
cotton. Even the unbleached cotton shows
marks of their patient toll and neatness with
the needle. The Mexican women care less
for outside show than for the inward fineness
and beauty of their attire, and the dresses
they make are nearly always cut in the
plainest style, the skirts being gathered at
the waist in a belt, and with one or two mar
row volantes or ruffles at the bottom. The
waists are loose and gathered also at the belt
Little girls are dressed in much the same
way. They love brilliant colors, and wear
much pink, which seems their favorite color
after white. Linen lawn dresses are prefer
red, and they are always Immediately clean,
though it is odd to see them dress in spotless
garments all starched and ironed to- the
highest point of perfection, and then squat
down fiat on the ground floor and sit there
A BLACK CAT COSTUME.